"Before The Deluge" as written by and Jackson Browne....
Some of them were dreamers
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other's hearts for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge
Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow
For the glitter and the rouge
And in a moment they were swept before the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other's hearts for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge
Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow
For the glitter and the rouge
And in a moment they were swept before the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
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Your comment was so very well stated. I agree completely. Like you I also believe that the interpretation of the lyric's to a song are/should be from one's personal perspective and I also believe this is the goal of most songwriters....personal interpretation, for which, there is no right or wrong.
While I believe I may be a few years younger than you (born in '60), I do recall the attitudes of that period of time. When I hear the lyrics, I get the same impression as you. The line "Confused by the magnitude of her fury in the final hour" speaks volumes. The destruction of the planet and our own demise, is at our own hand. But it's cause is not from a nuclear holocaust, but from thoughtless disregard and abuse of this place we call home. Man is so arrogant to believe because he walks upright, that he controls the planet and may do as he chooses, no matter the consequences.. He/she fail to remember that we share this planet with one of this worlds greatest treasures.....Animals. We are doing a grand job at destroying their natural habitats and we have effectively caused the extinction of more than a few species of animals by a variety of means including slaughter for profit. Even worse yet, consideration of what we leave for our children and our children's children, doesn't appear to be of high priority. I can't begin to imagine the condition of the place THEY will be calling home.
We start with the best of intentions, but fail in maintaining the integrity of our youthful, untarnished beliefs.
In the end, nature will certainly remind us who is in charge and it certainly isn't us. We will see her wrath. We are wise to realize it and act accordingly, while we have the chance to do so, on the outside chance that it isn't already to late to reverse that which we have already so thoughtlessly and carelessly done.
They would need to make their journey back to nature....
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered...
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them......
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
In the naked dawn only a few survived...........
So many great lines and it's clearly a warning that the direction the world and the people with power are taking will eventually lead to it's destruction unless we change our course to simpler times.
"Some of them were angry, At the way the earth was abused" - It's as true today as it was 200 years ago with Native Americans and of course further back. I recently heard a Native American say "If we'd have lived the way Native Americans lived, today we would still be able to drink out of Rivers." So many activists and concerned people who are trying to simply get people to listen to them are still being labeled as extremists, crack-pots, tree-huggers etc. Unfortunately these people harm profits and growth. Pretty selfish of them to want to save our very existence. "By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power" - In another version I have heard the line is slightly changed by the removal of "her" so the line becomes "...forged beauty into power" which to me has connotations of wealthy men in society understanding that as a vulnerable and scared mass of people we are easily subjected to artificial contrivances like vanity and beauty and while we are strutting about comparing ourselves, competing on the most ridiculous basis, they are carrying out the objectives that protect themselves from "the rascal multitude" as we are distracted. Although this version of that line is slightly different it's still a point I'd like to make, because it's blatantly obvious in our developed societies but it miraculously evades discussion in most forms.
The "..the magnitude of.." natures "..fury" is one of the most important points to make in this song. People who tried to protect the earth from the men who wanted to exploit her for their sole personal gain found it difficult to understand how destructive nature could be when we pushed her too much towards the edge. In all, I think it's a song about two groups of people that encapsulate true respectfulness, dignity, decency and thought as there principles and another much smaller but more powerful group that see individual gain, self-interest and plundering as unchangeable aspects of our human nature. If that's true then we were doomed to begin with.
The line in the song basically says it all: "and in the end they traded their tired wings for the resignation that living brings and exchanged love's bright and fragile glow for the glitter and the rouge. And in a moment they were swept before the deluge."